Fortunately, we have evidence that the entire nation has come together and the national leadership has braced itself to resolutely confront not only the terrorists but also their sympathizers and apologists. In fact, the stage for this undertaking had already been set by the ongoing operation Zarb-e-Azb. It has been noted by observers that the Peshawar massacre is a kind of confirmation of the gains that the army operation in North Waziristan has made. It shows that the terrorists are under great pressure. It was visibly an act of utter desperation.

We have buried our schoolchildren and they have become seeds. Now the challenge for us is to nurture these seeds into a garden of peace. And this task is as sacred as the barbarism of the terrorists was satanic. Meanwhile, though, we have to come to terms with a trauma that will stand out in the annals of crimes against humanity in world history. Time, they say, heals the wounds. But in this initial period, every passing day after that ignominious sixteenth of December has deepened our pain and our sorrow. The more you learn about the details of the beastly massacre, the more incomprehensible it becomes. We are numbed with shock. It is hard to imagine the loss that the parents, families and friends of more than one hundred and thirty four students and sixteen members of the staff of the Army Public School and others in Peshawar have suffered. Hundreds of students who were trapped in the premises and who watched the killings have been wounded psychologically and need professional care.

At the same time, this heartrending tragedy has touched us all across the entire country. We have all, in a sense, died a little. We have also seen how the rest of the world has grieved with us. “It’s a dark day for humanity,” said British Prime Minister David Cameron. That something like this has happened in Pakistan has its own significance. Since it has come in the wake of other gory exploits of terrorists in recent years, questions would naturally arise as to why this drift had not been effectively checked a long time ago. After all, Pakistan has almost been pushed to the edge of the precipice in a dire security environment that embraces global and regional exigencies. There have been additional, specific, reasons for the growth of militancy and religious extremism in the country.

Against this backdrop, the Peshawar massacre has the potential of becoming the catalyst for a paradigm shift in our national security and social development policies. It is a moment that has to be seized by our civilian and military leadership. We may be reminded of what Shakespeare said about a tide in the affairs of men that “when taken at the flood, leads on to fortune”.

Fortunately, we have evidence that the entire nation has come together and the national leadership has braced itself to resolutely confront not only the terrorists but also their sympathizers and apologists. In fact, the stage for this undertaking had already been set by the ongoing operation Zarb-e-Azb. It has been noted by observers that the Peshawar massacre is a kind of confirmation of the gains that the army operation in North Waziristan has made. It shows that the terrorists are under great pressure. It was visibly an act of utter desperation.

But this also means that the battle against the terrorists has arrived at a point where a decisive and conclusive strategy is required to finally mop up the debris of the past and build a new structure that had been visualized by our founding fathers. In the light of the Quaid’s vision, we have to reinvent Pakistan. The sixteenth of December is a date that has a flaming reference to a catastrophic turn of events in our history largely because of disconnect between our people and the leadership.

On this date in 2014, the dynamics have been different. In a metaphorical sense, this was an attack on the very existence of Pakistan and, for once, the people have no confusion about who the enemy is. This does not, however, mean that it would be easy to defeat this enemy and to eliminate it completely from within our ranks. We must also understand that it is a war that will also be fought in the minds of men. So, while we feel assured by the united resolve of the nation to finally eliminate all terrorists and traces of terrorism from Pakistan, an evidence of which was readily available on the part of both the civilian and the military leadership, a lot of soul-searching is essential. We did have an important clarification when the leadership vowed to go after all terrorists without any distinction between the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ Taliban. But the big question remains: how did we arrive at this diabolical turn of events? This, to be sure, is a very problematic issue. This is not the occasion to go over the history of how we were pushed into this blind alley. What is urgent, however, is to find the strength and an intellectual tenacity to make a new beginning in the light of what we can learn from our experience.

Personally, I feel comforted by some recent indications that the national sense of direction in this regard is being carefully modified, with particular reference to the moves made by the army. In the first place, the launching of Zarb-e-Azb in itself indicated a clear and more stringent policy. Its success became a vindication of the initiative that must have been taken after careful deliberation. However, I would specifically like to refer to a statement Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif made in Karachi only twelve days before the terrorist attack on Peshawar’s Army Public School. He said that Pakistan’s current “enemy lives within us and looks like us” and elaborated that security does not refer only to external threats but is a concern in terms of politics, human rights, economy, water security, terrorism and insurgency. We need to ponder about this formulation in the light of the latest developments. An obvious inference is that military action is no substitute for political process. This also means that the civil and the military institutions must work together and in harmony to pursue national security that is defined in a wider context. Essentially, the goal is to create a social order that fosters development in all its dimensions and ensure national security in its true spirit.

We are in a state of war but we may still have some moments to reflect on the root causes of terrorism and where it was that we, in a collective sense, made decisions that did not eventually serve our national interest. It should be possible to identify some lapses that have led to disasters. However, now that we are making a new beginning, we need to set our goals that conform to the original promise of Pakistan. The enemy that lives within us and looks like us cannot be easily defeated. Let me conclude with this Thomas Paine quotation: “These are times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shirk from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of men and women.”

The writer is a renowned literary figure and senior journalist who regularly contributes for print and electronic media. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Many years ago, when I had gotten used to absences, I realized that the numbness of the heart was only the mist passing over the lightless homes of this silent city at night. While I slept, the state of absence had quietly carved a cavernous hole in my heart, a raw wound, much like those that marked your beautiful body when life was taken from you, brutally, mindlessly, without purpose.

Since you left, that wound has grown so much larger that there is no heart any more – in its place there is nothing but your absence, dear one, an absence so powerful that it keeps me up at night, etched into my eyelids, carved into my memory, bleeding into my resolve to carry on without you. You, my dear one, have taken me with you, and all that remains now is an empty shell, a hollow vessel where only your voice resounds, shaking the fibre of my being when I remember each inflection of your language, each vowel and consonant that formed words of love from your mouth.

What did you do, dear one, to be taken away like this, mercilessly, so much before your time? It was time for us to go, those who failed you, those who failed to see that the enemy was amongst us, those who saw the enemy and did not recognize its insidious intent. It was your time to blossom, to flower, to dream your dreams in your waking hours, becoming the capable person who would make us proud. What did you do, dear one, to suffer this terrible travesty? What were your last thoughts, dear one, when you confronted the enemy? What went through that beautiful mind of yours when the enemy showered you with a hail of deadly bullets? Did you even have time to understand what was happening? Did you think of calling out, to call us to come, quickly, before it was too late? Was there time for that? Or did it all happen in a flash, a moment which defined the all too indelible difference between life and death? Dear One, speak to me, tell me your last thoughts, tell me that you did not feel the bullet piercing your flesh, that the pain did not invade the unbruised parts of your young body.

It is your eyes that I shall never forget, the bright light of your soul spreading itself like sunshine through the golden orb of your eyes. Tell me, dear one, what did you see, before that moment when that light faded from your golden eyes, that moment when life passed out of your fragile body, your soul wafting upwards to a safe place from where you would watch us mourn for you, grieving inconsolably, angry that this should have happened, that life should have abandoned you just when you were at its threshold.

What did your golden eyes see, dear one? Did you see in their eyes the hatred that is but a manifestation of fear, burning like live coals in hollow sockets where the life had already been snuffed out by ideologues of odium? Did you see the madness that comes from dangerous manipulation, predicated on perceptions of deprivation? Did you see the glory that your enemy coveted, that perverse dream that has been offered as incentive for the heinous crime that was to be committed, transporting not the victim but the perpetrator to some notion of a heavenly after-life? Did you see death in the deep recess of his chest, a mere hole where a heart should have been? What did you see, dear one?

Tell us of the horror you faced when you peered into the abyss of the enemy’s eyes, dear one. Tell us of the distortions which marked his mind like a cancerous skin enveloping all in its diseased folds. Tell us of the curl of his lips, the snarl of his mouth as he spat the order to destroy all that was beautiful, all that was precious, you, dear one, and all the others who shared your ordeal, huddled together for safety, grasping a hand which may pull one towards the light, towards life, hunched over in death, together for one last time.

I search the silence for your voice, your words, and I hear nothing but my own, a dirge, a lament for your young life cut short so brutally. I hear my own thoughts flooding my mind relentlessly, my own fears, my own fragility poised to take away what I have wanted to believe in: the goodness of humans, the triumph of good over evil. I want to scream out at this void created by your absence – I want to tear up the façade of civility, I want to go on a rampage, hurting, harming all that comes in my way. For where is the justice, where is the purpose of so much senseless killing, dear one? Who shall avenge your murder, who shall fight back, who shall banish this monster to that land of frozen hearts where it was given birth, more than three decades ago?

Dear One, here is something I have not shared with many. I tell you this because I know you shall want to know why it is that you and your colleagues in their green woolen blazers were covered in each other’s blood on that cold floor of your school auditorium. Many, many years ago, when I was a little older than the age at which you passed from this life into another world, I saw the bodies alongside the road of a city many miles away from the borders of our homeland. I saw the tanks rolling down those rutted roads and I shuddered at the thought of what was to come: the unfolding of an agenda which would envelop us in its dangerous design, building on notions of power which were disguised in the garb of religiosity. Today, that agenda has become a part of the fabric of the shroud which covers us all, burying us in its evil intent. Today, that horribly disfigured notion of religiosity has become a part of our landscape where people kill each other with impunity, where brother is pitted against brother, where those who subscribe to another set of beliefs are burnt to death or executed or blown up with bombs.

Dear One, you were the latest in the long list of martyrs who have been felled in the path of this dragon which destroys everything we have known: this is a creature which does not know music, it does not hear the rhythm of the seasons nor listen to bird song, to the laughter of children playing on a dirt floor. This is a creature constructed out of greed and fed on fear, nurtured on a repast of promised riches in an afterlife where all that was not theirs in this world would be theirs to claim in the next. This is a beast which does not even know its master for there are many who feed it, with the intent to destroy all that is good and worthy. This is a creation of minds who hide behind secret veils, clothing themselves in the garb of civilization. This is an enemy who was created to vanquish one and conquer another. And you, dear one, are but one of the thousands who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This is a creature which has burned to death, summarily executed, blown up into lifeless pieces of dismembered flesh, thousands of others, young and old, women and men, children and the aged. This is an enemy which knows no mercy, no reason, nor no humanity. It is a beast bereft of sanity, of sensitivity, of the sensibility of all that is sacred: life itself. This monster has been armed with weapons that it brandishes in our faces, threatening all that we hold dear to us. It has been clothed in the garments of perverse perception dictating its understanding of the faith, denouncing all those who do not follow its path, killing them as one would destroy a plague.

But, Dear One, it is this creature which has brought the plague, it is this monster which needs to be destroyed, and those who try to tell us otherwise need to be shown the face of hate in a mirror. Dear One, let me tell you that those who you have left behind are poised at the edge of a precipice where one false move can throw us over the edge. We, the living, must understand that there is a fine line between life and death – it is the line that you stood at on December 16th. It is the line at which we, the living, stand, choosing between a life lived with passion and conviction, or a life that is akin to death, devoid of purpose and intent.

Dear One, I was not there to ensure that you crossed that line towards life, but I am here to ensure I remain firmly rooted in my conviction that in order to defeat this enemy we must replace the idea of destruction with the idea of creation. We must choose life over death, and unless we destroy the idea and the hatred it has engendered, we shall have to get used to many more absences, much as this one, dear one, which gnaws away at my insides, hurting me each time I remember your smile, your gentle touch, each time I see another young child preparing for another day, another chance at life. I ask you, dear one, to judge me by the enemies I have made. For in this shall I find the courage to carry on with your absence firmly etched into my soul. In this resolve can we find the solace we long for. In this action can we heal the terrible suffering inflicted upon us. But it is a long journey ahead of us, dear one, one that is beyond the aerial strikes and the warfare. This is going to be a battle of minds more than a war of weapons, for it is the idea which feeds both life and death, and we must ensure that it is life we feed, not hatred nor death. For there are too many shrouds encasing the bodies of young citizens of my bleeding homeland; there are too many graves which mark the landscape of my anguished homeland. It is enough now, dear one: this is a promise I make to you.

The writer studied Political Economy at McGill University, Montreal, Media Education at the University of London, Development Communication at the University of Southern California, and Cultural Heritage Management at the National College of Arts, Lahore. She teaches at apex institutions, writes columns for a leading daily, makes documentaries, and has published two best-selling novels.

Media in Pakistan is a success story. It is free, independent and increasingly assertive. It is playing a pivotal role in formulating public opinion and keeping the executive in check. In tandem with a fearlessly independent higher judiciary it has helped in introducing a modicum of accountability in the body politic.

This was not always the case. The present freedom of the proverbial 'Fourth Estate' emanates from two momentous decisions. Before 1988 prior permission was needed from the government to start publishing and printing a newspaper, which was practically next to impossible to come by.
Credit goes to the caretaker government formed after the death of General Zia ul Haq in August 1988 for abolishing the draconian 'Press and Publications Ordinance'. Under the new law prior approval from the government was no longer necessary to start a newspaper.
This brought about a revolution in the print media. Since then there has been a mushrooming of newspapers and periodicals. Some of them have emerged as quality publications.

However, it must be admitted that a vast majority are fake publications popularly known as dummies. Since no educational qualifications are required for the publisher and editor to start a newspaper, all kinds of elements have entered the fray to further their personal agendas.
Perhaps an even more momentous decision with far reaching consequences for freedom of press in the country was the advent of electronic media in the private sector. It all started in 2002 when General Musharraf as President, despite stiff opposition from his media advisors, decided to liberalize the regime for opening private television channels and FM radios.

Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) was established in 2002 to regulate private television channels. The monopoly of state television PTV was broken overnight. Today there are about eighty television channels operating in the country – most of them current affairs’ channels.

In the present environment media is coming under a lot of scrutiny. All kinds of opinions are expressed and debated freely. The downsides of this however are complaints that the media, accountable to no one, has become too powerful.
When policy to grant permission for satellite channels in the private sector was being formulated, after initial hesitation, the Musharraf government decided not to put any restriction on cross media ownership. Resultantly most big print media houses own current affairs television channels as well.
Some media groups even have entertainment and sports channels. Big business houses have also entered the media market in recent years not only to make money but also to increase their clout with powers that be.

Initially a number of journalists working for newspapers moved to the electronic media. Some of the have become big names as current affairs’ anchors. They draw huge salaries that were unimaginable in newspapers.
Musharraf to his peril, soon realized that he was on the receiving end of the power of the genie he had unleashed. Live coverage by the electronic media of the long marches led by the deposed Iftikhar Muhammad Choudhry in the 2007 movement for restoration of a free judiciary inexorably mobilized public opinion against the government.

When Musharraf by suspending the Constitution and declaring an emergency on November 3 the same year, tried to put the genie of a free media back in the bottle, he miserably failed. The media and the black coats in their struggle to restore an independent judiciary practically paved the way for return of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif from exile and holding of fair and free elections in February 2008.
Today in a relative sense the media is now completely unshackled. However like in the rest of the world, in Pakistan electronic media is on the ascendency while the print media is struggling for survival.

Theoretically PEMRA was set up as an autonomous body to regulate the electronic media. Practically speaking, however, it is the hand maiden of the government. Media owners with their immense clout hardly follow its regulations.
For example the law on foreign content is flouted with impunity. There is a proliferation of Indian content on most channels to the extent that Indian films and songs have become household names.
Similarly Turkish dramas have become a source of addiction for the general public. Cable operators contrary to PEMRA rules operate as broadcasters by transmitting substandard software.

The electronic media is heavily critiqued for its rampant commercialism. Unfortunately virtually all its programmes are ratings driven. Higher ratings bring more advertisement revenue and vice versa. Hence business interests of the owners usually transcend social responsibilities.
Truth and sobriety is the first casualty in this mad race for ratings. The fact that broadcasting license mandates a certain portion of airtime for social issues is often overlooked or, for that matter, never enforced by PEMRA.
So far, as the print media is concerned, it is free albeit relatively less sensational. In the past considerable leverage of government sourced advertisements were used as a tool to coerce dissenting newspapers.

Theoretically governments can punish overly critical media through various means at its command. But in an atmosphere pervaded with fiercely independent courts and penchant of the populace for a free media it is no longer feasible to use third degree methods against the media.
Self-regulation for the print media was introduced in 2002 through formation of the 'Press Council of Pakistan' headed by a retired High Court judge. But it practically set shop in 2011 when Justice (Retd) Raja Shafqat Abbasi was appointed as its current chairman and media practitioners including the owners and working journalists as its members.

The Council since its inception has hardly made any impact on improving the print media environment. Its mandate is to address public complaints against the media and to “revise, update, enforce and implement Ethical Code for newspapers and news agencies”. It has miserably failed on both counts.
Admittedly a vibrant and free media is Pakistan's strength. But there is big room for improvement to facilitate the media to successfully shoulder its huge social responsibility of moulding the ethical standards of society.
Of course, this will happen through an evolutionary process. Any attempt to rollback freedom of the media in the name of making it more responsible will produce disastrous results for the future of democracy.

Nonetheless a better regulatory framework for the electronic media and a workable self-regulation for the print media is the need of the hour. PEMRA rather remaining an appendage of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting should be truly independent of the government and headed by a person of repute.
Similarly the Press Council is a good idea. But in order for it to have an impact it needs to be strengthened. It should be headed by, and composed of, members who can make a difference. All of the above, however, can be done solely through dialogue with all the stakeholders.

The writer is a former Federal Minister for Information & Broadcasting. He is an eminent personality of electronic and print media. He is also the Editor of an English Daily.
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